


unmasked

by misura



Category: Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 01:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2794907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You dealt me my most crushing defeat when you were a mere sixteen years of age."</p>
            </blockquote>





	unmasked

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fireinthedark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireinthedark/gifts).



He had heard of the mask, of course - an 'elegant work of art', Massai had called it, and in this, as in many other things, Massai had walked the fine line between an outright lie and an unpalatable truth.

To hear of a thing and to see it with one's own eyes, though; these were different things.

"You dealt me my most crushing defeat when you were a mere sixteen years of age," he said. "I thought then, that you would be a thorn in my side for a great many more years to come."

He did not say: _I prayed that you would fall off your horse and break your neck_. He did not make such prayers now; let that be enough.

"And instead?" Baldwin asked. His voice still sounded more or less normal. His breathing, as that of a man at rest between battles.

"You will be a rose, blooming all too briefly." They were in private, here - not out of earshot of Saladin's guards, of course, but that mattered not. Saladin's guard knew how to watch their tongues and moreover, they had nothing to gain by spreading tales of - well, what, exactly?

Two great kings, exchanging pleasantries.

Baldwin chuckled a little and in this sound Saladin heard, clearly, the illness. He did not allow the expression on his face to change, the smile on his lips to fade away.

"More of this flattery and you will cause me to blush."

"I should not see it," Saladin said. "If my words please or grieve you, I shall be blind to it. This is not the matter in which I would have speech with you."

"We could write each other letters instead."

"Letters get intercepted. Messengers are taken, killed." Messengers _had_ been taken and killed.

Baldwin stared at him. His eyes, at least, were still as Saladin remembered them.

"Take off your mask, friend. Permit me to see the truth of you."

"No." A boy's voice, high and clear, or nearly so.

"Shall we make war over this, then?"

"You wouldn't," Baldwin said, less a boy now, and more a king.

Saladin kept silent. It was true, of course; he would not sanction war on Jerusalem over a mere moment of pride and vanity - but then, he _might_ sanction it over a consideration of tactics. Politics.

"You would not," Baldwin repeated, as he leaned forwards a little. Offering that which he would not be bullied into giving.

"I would not," Saladin allowed, undoing the straps, careful not to touch any skin. His physicians had warned him, lectured him extensively on the illness that would soon claim the life of Jerusalem's king.

Baldwin shivered, once, as the mask came off.

"Now," Saladin said, "let us speak of your Templar Knights."


End file.
